Koh Phi Phi - On our taxi journey to Phuket Town harbour Jade and I meet a couple from Wiltshire. Karen and Perry; a lively pair blessed with a west country accent, These two have been travelling all over the shop for the last 12 months stopped off for four days in Wiltshire before deciding they wanted travel some more ! At the Harbour it is absolutely scorching hot, the sun is shimmering off the clear blue sea, we are somewhat super-excited and are both quizzing Perry in the queue about Phi Phi, as he has been there before. … Like a million times or something haha. As the couple are asking where we do we come from we reply "Newquay" but say that we are moving to Woolacombe when we finish travelling, I notice as we mention this a girl shoots off to her friend and say that "those guys over there are from Woolacombe". A group turn round to say hello and ask where are we from, we explain about Jades brother Mum and Dad all moving down there just recently so this is where we want to live . Can you believe that they are from Woolacombe too?? So now we have new friends Sam, Jen, Katie oh and not forgetting Phil! Many stories to come about "Philippe flop".

So after all the introducing, we all take our places and appreciate the spectacular views on our ferry voyage to Koh Phi Phi.

We slowly creep into the Port of Koh Phi Phi the lush green coconut trees growing on the side of the towering limestone Karsts that enclose the bay of Phi Phi it is a truly jaw dropping view . It has been one of my life long dreams to go to "The Beach" which is located on the sister island just a short long tail boat journey away. We cannot believe our eyes and I cannot believe how lucky I am to be here. We get off the ferry and make our way up the Jetty in search of the Banana Resort porter as our Resort is a little bit out of the town and up on the hill. Oh and they don't have cars on this Island. As we find our porter ready to collect us, we then realise that the Gang from Woolacombe are staying at the same resort. So as we make our way to the resort we all get reacquainted and there is non stop chit chat all the way up to huts.

Our first night in Phi Phi and we all arrange to meet up and get something to eat ,Phil says to me "you can pick my dinner! I eat everything" so on we went, sat down and ordered him Tom Yam Goong -which translates to hot and sour soup in English . And oh boy was it Hot, It blew Phils head off; he danced around the restaurant in pain , It was like drinking satans urine… I know this as I ordered the same soup- my favourite food in Thailand , But this particular one was stupidly spicy.

After all the shenanigans at the restaurant we head to a few bars with all the guys from " Wooly ", buckets are being drank left right and centre the more we drink the more Phil acts the goat which takes the limelight from me … its usually me being the goat! He is highly entertaining. This is where we find a bar called the banana bar with its beautiful rooftop bar, turns out this will be our local hangout for the next four night as it plays movies every night at 7, so after all the drinking and partying on the beach Jade and I decide that we have had far too many buckets and strawberry daiquiris' and somehow (very tipsy may I add) get ourselves home safely(?!!!).

We wake rather late the next day sweating "buckets" literally Jade is refusing to get of bed as her hangover is so bad, The sky is clear blue and it is baking hot, not ideal for hangovers I can assure you! I venture into the heart of Phi Phi to see if I can rustle up some hangover remedies for Jade. Knowing that some delicious delicacies will do the trick and maybe entice Jade out of her pit and cure her hangover, so I come back armed with Ice cold diet cokes, water, a slice of pizza and Jades favourite thai dish Holy Basil pork. She loved it and was soon out of bed and getting ready! Next stop Phi Phi beach we are sweltering and still sweating out the alcohol, I was even considering draining it of into a cup and recycling it. We arrive at the beach and head straight to the sea to cool off.

We walk into the sea a few 100 yards but its only knee deep maximum, so we just bask in the warm yet refreshing crystal clear waters. The view of the bay is amazing from out at sea, looking back at the cliffs that are towering us from either side, Jade is so glad she got of bed. Whilst we are in the sea we bump into Perry and Karen who have just come down to the beach to play Frisbee. Jade and I go for another dip and bump into the wooly gang who are having a dip in the sea to cool down from the extreme heat. We introduce Perry and Karen to the woolly gang and all go for a walk around the bustling streets of Phi Phi in search of Island trip, which will include snorkelling and Maya beach from the film "The beach". We find one and book it for the same day as my birthday. We all continue to walk around just to see what Phi Phi has to offer; the maze-like streets are filled with Thais on bikes and the sounds of their make shift horns (the person actually just saying beep beep) make us all jump continuously.

Koh Phi Phi Island Tour... It's my 30th. So the day started with Jade spoiling me with gifts, then it was off to a Irish bar in Phi Phi town itself to meet up with the other guys and have a fry up ,which I thoroughly enjoyed. .So it was off to Meet up with Perry and Karen who had our boat tickets… after a short walk from the ticket office we had arrived at our boat and were each issued with snorkel, mask and fins .There was a short wait before we boarded the long tail boats but I didn't mind as the view of Phi Phi's bay is just breath taking ,what with the limestone karst popping out from either side the lush tropical forest that line the cliffs or just the sight of the colourful fish in the crystal clear waters take your pick its truly amazing. We have to stop and pinch ourselves , are we really in paradise ? The short wait is over and we boarding our boat s for the snorkelling Island daytrip ahead of us. The Thai driver powering us out of the bay of Phi Phi manoeuvres the diesel car engine ingeniously mounted on a scaffold bar, with makeshift propeller and pelting out a trail of thick black smoke behind us and this is where Jade and I meet up with Chris and James from Yorkshire.

Our first stop is shark point just on the exit of the bay of Phi Phi. We all get in for a snorkel . all the guys see sharks except me , never mind I'm not too sure about being shark bait thank you very much! So we all were back on the boat heading towards Bamboo Island, which turns out to be a somewhat tropical hideout, it was so tranquil here as we pulled up for lunch. The beach stretched as far as the eye can see and looked like something from the film cast away, Jade and I could of easily lost a few days here , The hour seemed like five minutes . Next stop is Mosquito Island but we do not go ashore here, It is a stop for us all to snorkel as there is marine life in abundance here ,As we are snorkelling around the Thai driver finds it highly funny to chuck rice on our heads and the fish swarm around you ! There are absolutely thousands; some of them even having a little nibble on you too ! Perry is doing his acrobatics into the sea and we are all having such a great day laughing and joking and playing pranks on one another .We now are making tracks to monkey island; as soon as you see the bay of the Monkey Island you can spot straight away why this is its name! We all stroll along and there is a pack of Macaque monkeys playing on rope swing in the overhanging trees on the beach. These primates seemed to have taken a disliking to Perry and are chasing him into the sea, you should have seen the teeth on them!! Karen informs me that everywhere he goes, monkeys always seem to hate him! We are all laughing so much at the monkey vs human on the beach ! So it's back on board for some delicious refreshments of fruit and water and we are making the grand finale of our voyage to Maya Bay where Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed making "the beach". First we enter a huge lagoon to stop and snorkel one final time , Jade and I take many pictures underwater with the fish. Two guys on our boat decide to go and swim to the steps leading up to the back of maya beach and our boat driver disappears round the corner without them, we can see the two guys waving trying to call us back but we are all shouting and cheering as we cruise of into the distance and disappear round the corner to enter " The Beach" . With the weather turning on us it still is truly a magnificent sight to be seen , this has been a lifelong dream of mine to come here and I'm doing it on my 30th with my girlfriend and a bunch of really cool people… today couldn't of been any better really. We stop to get the obligatory photos of this famous beach, the bay is enclosed with the huge limestone Karsts again and with just a small entrance you do feel somewhat lucky to be seeing these amazing sights. Back on the boat and making tracks for the main Island of Koh Phi Phi Don, I ask everyone on the boat if they fancy a few beverages at the Banana Rootop bar. To which everyone came and had a splendid evening.

So our last two days are being spent relaxing on the beaches, Oh and slack lining… Perry is somewhat of an acrobatic-come-circus-act-guy , setting up his slack line between two trees and we all try tight rope walking. It is amazingly addictive, Sam one of the wooly lads is doing better walking backwards than he going forwards! The girls retire to the beach and us lads carry on more determined each time, but I swear we are getting worse! After all this hard effort slackling it was off to enjoy some Thai delicacies, This is where I introduce Chris to the Papaya salad .. I have never seen someone grimace so much whilst eating... typical English blokes who don't like food with any colour in it, this made me laugh (and reminded us of you Adam Baxter). It was quite funny watching him eat , but I do feel a little guilty for making him try it! .. stick to the MacDonald's boys! So our last day is spent at the pub using wireless whilst all the girls go to the beach , Perry showing us treks we can do whilst we are in Railay and Ao nang , We are all quite excited for what Krabi has to offer , We leave Phi Phi with so many fond memories… this was truly an exciting and fun place to be and especially the highlight of meeting such wonderful people .